I don't think that electric vehicles are the answer for everyone. Sure if you live in a major city and don't do road trips they will fulfill your needs, but where I live you can't even get to the next city with an electric vehicle because it's a full day's drive on the interstate.
Great, yes, fine. I never said they were. Spectre seems to be arguing that because they aren't practical for
him they will
never be practical for
anyone,
anywhere.
Let me just mention a couple of things and then I'll let it go. I said that removable batteries were practical and I still believe that. In my opinion setting a standard for the connection of those removable batteries to the charger would be ideal. I gave a number of examples of standards that are in use today;
- USB - I can plug any USB device into my computer and it will work. About 15 years old.
- Photographic film - I can buy film for my camera that's over 100 years old and have it processed. I can even put a digital back on the same camera.
- Batteries - I can buy them pretty much anywhere in the world and they will fit, and work.
And I could continue, credit/debit cards for example, but I won't.
Spectre used examples such as media cards, oil filters and car batteries
for which there is no standard to try to prove that standards don't work. Good argument.
But, even if no standard were set it still doesn't mean that removable batteries couldn't be viable.
And even if that were true, it still doesn't mean that the electric bike isn't viable.
Take the internal combustion engine as an example. Do they run on one fuel? Is there one kind of connection to fill up? No and no. They run on petrol, which comes in many different octane ratings, diesel, LPG, CNG and ethanol blends. The internal combustion engine is completely impractical.
Just one more thing. When LPG was introduced into Australia there were few places it was available, most of them were in urban areas. To convert your car was expensive, it reduced the power, fuel consumption and range yet people did it. Why? It reduced running costs.
The running cost of a "Zero" electric bike at the moment is less than .01c/km or mile according to their website. If I did just a 30km (18.6mile) return commute (could be done by bicycle) 5 days a week that works out to $640/yr for my bike vs max $80/yr for the electric bike. That doesn't include oil, oil filter, air filter etc. nor any rebates, tax breaks or concession for it being a zero emissions vehicle.